Check this out http://www.pafc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10364~2378144,00.html .... the plot thickens !!!!
Hmm...So Heaney appears to be involved as a advisor. Interesting reading. I wonder what the property company will be doing to the land?
Slightly better news I feel. They have confirmed that it is the Irish and it's good that the developement will be two completely seperate projects, Ridders is a football man and the fact that the club will efectively be his has to be cause for some optimism. It is good that things are at last moving, the only fly in the ointment is Heaney - what's that all about?
Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse lol .... still you will be ok Hobo doesn't Heaney build houses lol
Since we've been included in the fixture list following Guilfoyle's trip to Cyprus, does that mean that the Football League have definitely accepted they don't need to know the identity of the consortium? This clearly states that at no time does the football club belong to them, it goes straight from the administrator to Ridsdale. If so that's one step in the right direction if a small one in the grand scheme. It wouldn't be unusual for a foreign investor to join up with a local partner who's familiar with local procedures and practices. It could be genuine.....
At least it clarifies that Ridsdale will be the legal owner of the club, therefore the football league do not need to know who they are as they are only land developers. I hope their plan will include a few club promoting properties.
Only clears the mud slightly...........Truro chairman Kevin Heaney is not involved on a football level, he will only be an advisor regarding the phantom bidders construction plans. This safeguards his position at Truro, thank goodness for that, he will have no dealings with PAFC's football future. The statements worth hearing for that fact alone. Tha fact that Peter Ridsdale will own 100% of the football club we already knew.............thats the marmite problem......you either like it or you do not..........take it or leave it............what else could of happened.........nothing ? The question I asked earlier today is still relevent.........the phantoms meeting today with the council planning officers and their need for more land in Central Park. Maybe this statement might be giving us a teeny weeny clue that the council will give them what they need to make the deal feasible,then they will release tuesdays (21st) payment followed by a final payment at the end of June. What it hasn't done is inform anyone who the hell they are !!!.........Will that satisfy the Football League...........Just because the fixture list is out doesn't guarantee that they have accepted the situation............there was a lot of clubs waiting for their fixtures coming out today,that was already set in stone that that would happen.
Well I for one have lost confidence in Brendan Guilfoyle,he should of and could of resolved the sale by now,he had received a financially sound bid focussed on running a business concentrating on football with building development second(the Brent bid).Instead we have had weeks of secrecy and insecurity,time would appear to be running out on even being a financially viable football club for next season,let alone worrying about who will play for us.This is crap.
akagreengull2 you cannot tell me that there are not plans ready to be set in motion the moment all of this is settled. The only way that these could go belly up would be if the current lot failed to complete. I refuse to believe that Ridsdale would not have thought all of this through. The one thing you cannot level at him is that he is not a wheeler dealer with a knack of coming out of things intact. If he is to be the sole owner then there is nothing in it for him if it all fails. I have no idea personally if this is a good deal or a bad deal. It is currently the only deal so what choice is there other than to sit back and hope it is a good one in the end.
Brendan must have taken a bung! Its just dragging on far to long, but at least we still have a club. So what about funds? who will provide these, Ridsdale? I wonder what others will be on the Board. The japs may still be involved as the mystery buyer with the irish.
Sensible just watched the Guilfoyle interview,my view has'nt changed.The obvious choice was to go for the Brent bid as endorsed by the fanbase,supporters trust and local media.But the choice was a mystery bid based on property development-WHY?.here and now as supporters we don't have a choice,as you say we have to go along with it and hope.But as someone who like many others is passionate in my support of Argyle,my personal feelings are that the process and current situation is CRAP.
What we do not know is exactly what the Brent option was though. We have speculation that it was better. Why is that? Was is because he mentioned the magic words "football based" rather than development. I still do not believe that he wasn't interested in development first and formost. Why would he simply just want to give Argyle lots of money. We also don't know the details of the Consortium bid either. We now do know it was based on development but the rest of it is clouded in mystery. Notdistantgreen has said many things on the intracacies of takeovers and the like. Some of it I get but not all and I would be lying if I tried to make out I was up on the subject. The Administrator had a remit laid out for him. Who is to say that he hasn't taken the best option under that remit from those that put up proposals. I can't say that and with due respect I doubt you could either given the lack of detail. It is easy to criticise from outside looking in when the only thing you have to think about is the survival of your club. If you were given the guidelines he was given for this process I wonder if you would have had any option but to take the same route. He is not lord and master of it all where he can simply decide on his own personal whim which one he prefers. I think......
Angry creditors confront Heaney as firm collapses owing £500,000 Wednesday, October 15, 2008 This is Cornwall Follow. TODAY the West Briton can exclusively reveal the full fallout of the collapse of football tycoon Kevin Heaney's housing development company. Angry local businessmen confronted the owner of Truro City Football Club as his firm Cornish Homes (UK) Ltd went into liquidation owing £500,000 to businesses in Cornwall and throughout the country. ​ Boscawen Woods, Truro, a Cornish Homes development where work has stopped. Cameracraft . No media was allowed into the closed-door meeting for creditors at Exeter, but as The West Briton's parent company is owed money by the firm, we could not be prevented from attending. And while there is no suggestion Mr Heaney or any of his employees or companies have done anything illegal, today we can reveal: ● Cornish Homes (UK) went into voluntary liquidation owing £4.8 million ● the official report names no fewer than 165 individuals and businesses as creditors, including a woman claiming unfair dismissal, more than half of them Cornish ● £5.4 million from two subsidiary companies under Cornish Homes (UK) Ltd control was transferred out in 2005 and the companies themselves removed in March this year. Mr Heaney was the sole shareholder and director of Cornish Homes (UK) Ltd, one element of a tangled web of 14 companies of which he is a director. It was the manager and workhorse of his group of businesses, earning commissions by carrying out developments as contractor. It started trading in October 2002 and operated at a loss until 2004 when it made £9,948 on a turnover of £340,002. But in 2005 it again plunged into the red with a loss of £266,606. A report to the liquidation meeting said Cornish Homes (UK) Ltd was supported by Mr Heaney injecting his own funds as well as loans from subsidiary companies, including Cornish Homes (Land) Ltd and Cornish Homes (Developments) Ltd. About £4 million of the overall debt was owed to Mr Heaney himself and one of the former subsidiaries. But the meeting heard that in 2005, £3.9 million held by Cornish Homes (Land) Ltd and £1.4 million under Cornish Homes (Developments) Ltd was transferred into a private remuneration trust in Mr Heaney's name for "tax reasons". Establishing a remuneration trust is a common method of avoiding high tax rates. It again made a loss in 2006 and, as a potential £6 million development deal fell through due to the sliding housing market, debts piled up. By the end of 2007 the international credit crunch had worsened and in January 2008 21 of 31 full-time staff were made redundant. Work soon ground to a halt on two multi-million pound housing developments, Boscawen Woods at Truro and Zen, Liskeard. His company's report said Mr Heaney tried to sell the firm but a deal fell through and he attempted to raise money to save it but found lenders unwilling to risk their money. By now Mr Heaney had injected £2.3 million of his own funds, with a further £1.9 million loaned by the subsidiaries. These are now listed as unpaid debts and account for most of the £4.8 million owed. But the meeting heard these two companies were in March transferred out of Cornish Homes (UK) Ltd, meaning any assets they held were no longer available to the parent firm. It was decided the business was insolvent and it ceased trading on June 14. At the time of the liquidation meeting it held £12,985 in assets. Its trading premises at Newham, Truro, were owned by Cornish Properties, another company in the group. The liquidation report listed 31 Lemon Street, which is owned by Mr Heaney, as the last trading address. Liquidation consultant The Kelmanson Partnership was brought in and arranged last week's meeting for creditors. This was where Mr Heaney, reportedly worth £145 million according to The Sunday Times Rich List, came face to with those the company owed money and was also grilled by three HM Revenue & Customs representatives. Creditors want to know why such a wealthy man will not repay the £500,000. One customs official said at the meeting: "I'm interested in the two subsidiaries. The shares were transferred to Mr Heaney personally for a nominal amount fairly recently. "The subsidiaries were assets of Cornish Homes (UK) Ltd and any assets within these companies were assets of Cornish Homes (UK) Ltd. "The directors report from 2005 says a remuneration trust was set up. A balance sheet of £3.9 million worth of land and developments was just given away as a pure gift to the remuneration trust. Why was it just given away? "How did it benefit this company to give away its assets? "That's money that could still be here as assets in Cornish Homes (UK) Ltd which these creditors could have benefited from." Mr Heaney said he believed HMRC had attended for the purposes of an unrelated investigation into his taxes, but added: "I have nothing to hide. It's all in my accounts and you can contact the accountants who set up the trust. "I took advice on my tax affairs from (London barrister) Paul Baxendale-Walker and the trust is the avenue that was taken on their advice. They advised for tax planning this was the way to go forward. "Anything that's been done is in line with the law of this country. The law is the law and if I'm entitled to make a trust, I can make a trust." Mr Heaney said the final straw came when the company's bank, Natwest, "suddenly" refused to loan it any money, combined with the deepening housing market slump. He said: "I took the view that in June I didn't want to see any more invoices raised. I was still thinking I could secure funding from other banks but as you know they were all in trouble. "I have assets of my own which I would use to fund the group." "This is how management companies work. If you deal with a large firm you have a number of subsidiary companies because banks like it that way to protect their own assets. "I am now sitting on property which is unsold because people can't get mortgages. What can I do about it? "I did not expect the bank to turn around and suddenly say, 'Your assets are worth 40% less than they were.' "All developers can't sell and have ceased construction because people can't buy homes. "I wish I was still sitting on a load of cash. I have never been in this position in my life before. "It hurts me not to be able to run the development company in this current climate. It hurts me because I have never shut a company down. "At the end of the day it would be more hurtful to carry on and I'm not prepared to do that." In a statement his solicitors said the 2005 transactions were not related to Cornish Homes (UK) Ltd, but John Kelmanson, who is handling the liquidation investigation, said as Cornish Homes (Land) Ltd was a subsidiary at the time, they were "fair game" for the meeting. Mr Kelmanson said after the meeting: "It was a long and heated meeting where concerns were expressed by creditors which will form part of my investigation into the affairs of the company, which has gone into voluntary liquidation and will not trade under that name again. "Connections to his other companies within the group have become apparent today which it may be necessary to include in the investigative function."
That's the obvious point,he had a reason to go with the Irish consortium (whatever that it) but he may have got it wrong,but only future events will verify that.You make two good points:we don't know what Brent meant by a football based bid and obviously the administrators focus is markedly different to the supporters emotive desire to get a positive outcome.
Why are all the dodgy characters interested in OUR club, it's like vultures picking at a dead (dying in our case) body!
Cheer Up, We still have a club. None of us know what is going on, so we have to hope that "Brendan" has got it right! We have no say in any of what's happening. No other team could have done it this way! Only argyle.
If Peter Ridsdale owns 100% of the football club where does investment come from for the financing of the operation. OK the phantom bidders have off-loaded the football business,always a venture hard to make a profit from,compared with the bricks and concrete project that they have come into this deal for. Have the phantom bidders given Ridsdale a working jackpot to establish the football team beyond the gate receipts,shop sales,advertisment sales etc. Or have the phantom bidders given him the club for peanuts then saying it's up to you now,we given you a long lease,pay us the rent each year but don't expect a penny more. Will Ridsdale be inviting investment into Argyle through offering directorships onto the new clubs board,will they be argyle men or just hard headed businessmen looking for some recreational outlet. Will the phantom bidders expect "their man" on the board to observe what happens or will they not care less what Ridsdale gets up to ?
It's vital to understand that an administrator's role is just to save the troubled business come what may or to put it in a position where it can sail off into the sunset as if nothing had happened. It's to generate the maximum value possible for those that are owed money. There's a world of difference. Football clubs and fans that don't like that should try to avoid getting their clubs into that situation! There's a classic quote on a VitalFootball article linked off the BBC Argyle page at the moment. "The next concern is how does the football side of the operation generate funding, does Ridsdale have to solely rely on gate receipts, sponsorship and transfer fees to keep the football club afloat?" Errrm well yes actually, isn't that how all clubs should be run? Wouldn't football be far better off for ordinary fans of ordinary clubs like Argyle - and indeed the Boltons and and the Norwichs and the Stokes of this world - if it wasn't for the likes of Chelsea and Man City sucking the life out of the game?
So who will Ridsdale offer directorships too.........to get an influx of cash. PS.........Have I missed any tip bits or morsels of information dropped to us the peasants, regarding the phantom buyers Rep's meeting yesterday (17th) with the Councils Planning Officers.........???
